Member Profile

Susan Straiton

I come from a family of artists. As a child, weekend sketching trips and constant drawing, along with the mentoring of a number of attentive art teachers, immersed me in a life dedicated to the visual arts.

After graduating from Sheridan College, I worked at several Oakville galleries, the CNE Gallery for OAC , and in Toronto painting animation cells at the The Magic Machine Cartoon Factory. I did a bit of travelling, then returned to Oakville, to become the assistant curator of an exhibit dedicated to the art treasures hidden in private homes. About the same time, I set up my first studio and dedicated myself to painting, primarily landscapes.

In the mid 1970s, an artist friend and I built a studio-houseboat, a solution to high rents. We launched it in Lake Muskoka and for a number of summers I lived and worked on it. In 1980, an opportunity to work in the Lake Louise area mountains allowed me to explore the solidity of rock against the delicacy of clouds. After a couple of years, I returned to Ontario and Prince Edward County where I remain to this day … living and painting.